Dovah Alok
by Tyranidlord
Summary: Sos do Dov (Part 4) After a night of drinking, learning about her mysterious companion and meeting Sanguine in person, all Sofia wanted to do was cash in the Dragonstone to Farengar and continue getting drunk. Getting dragged along to a watchtower to the west of Whiterun to investigate a supposed dragon sighting was not something she intended...


Title Translation - Dragon Rising

Chainmail jingled, armour plates clanked and a considerable portion of her underwear was riding up into places that Sofia was trying not to think about. It was a situation that she was finding incredibly easy to do though, as the fact that she was staring into Kaius' spine and surrounded by a considerable number of heavily armed guards provided an ample distraction. What it wasn't doing was taking her mind off the way that her mouth was dryer than the deserts of Elsweyr, the way her hands were increasingly sweaty and her breath struggling through her chest that had little to do with how they were all jogging.

It was fear, and although she was long since accustomed to its presence, this was a fear that she had never experienced. It was a fear that was gnawing away at her soul and had been doing so since she had watched in growing realisation as Kaius had simply nodded his head to Jarl Balgruuf.

The morning had gone well, despite the pounding headache that had been spearing the depths of her mind since she had risen. Restraint had not been a word that she had ever believed in, and after the events of the previous night between Kaius leaving Mikael and his friends in the hands of the Temple Healers and their brush with _Sanguine_ she had not stopped until everything had turned black.

Despite the hour that she had finally come to and staggered down from the Bannered Mare's rooms and the time it took before she found the sun agreeable again Kaius had simply waited for her. He had drunk just as much, if not more than she had in the evening and despite the way he carried himself she knew as well as he did that he was badly hungover. To most he appeared as stoic as ever, but he finally looked a little pale and when they emerged from the Tavern he walked the entire way to Dragonsreach with his hood pulled over his head and eyes squinting against the noonday sun.

Farengar was beside himself to see the Dragonstone, almost jumping on the spot with glee when he laid eyes on it. The purse of gold was welcome, as was the Jarl's personal thanks. What was not as welcome was the way that a young hold soldier had appeared, being escorted by Irileth directly and telling all who would listen about the way one of the watchtowers had been destroyed. By a dragon…

The stories had been circulating for over a month now, growing ever stranger and incredible with every telling. Almost everyone had heard tales to someone who had heard from a traveller who had known someone who had survived the attack on Helgen. Helgen had been destroyed, that much was certain but rumours of a black winged dragon fought against the stories and tales of the Stormcloaks and the Legion battling it out, the Thalmor razing it to the ground. Hells, there was even stories about how Jarl Ulfric himself had not only been present, but had been captured by the imperials beforehand.

In fact, Sofia thought grimly to herself, the only person that hadn't seemed willing to say anything about Helgen was Kaius. He had enough secrets that he kept to himself that she couldn't help but remember that cold early morning that they had met, when he had been dressed in tattered rags of clothing and armour and not the sturdy steel plate he wore now. Dressed in tattered and scorched clothing, his cloak threadbare she remembered all too well how he the smell of ash and smoke clung to his flesh and possessions. They had never spoken about what had happened but she was growing ever more certain that he knew the truth about Helgen. Somehow she knew by the look on his face when he agreed to travel with Irileth and a detachment of guards to the watchtower that he was expecting the impossible…

So here they were, jogging lightly in their armour and fully armed for war, surrounded by a ragged column of Hold guards three wide and ten deep in the direction of an oily slick of smoke rising into the air. The scarred Dunmer Housecarl led the way, setting the pace that had left some of the less fit individuals moving to the rear of the formation. It was just over half a dozen kilometres from Whiterun to the site of the attack, a distance that they could've marched in just over an hour and a half. Instead, and understandably so they were hurrying as best they could, weapons slapping against thighs and spines and shields strapped tightly to arms.

Kaius as ever, was inexhaustible. His pace ate away at the road as he simply jogged along, barely even breaking out into a sweat or breathing heavily in comparison to some of the weaker guards in the rear of the formation. Sofia was so thankful that a life of hardship had left her made of firmer stuff than those men around her, especially as they made their way over a rise and witnessed a scene of devastation.

"Talos preserve us." Whispered one of the guards. He was jolted slightly as one of his comrades elbowed him in the ribs in an unspoken warning.

Sofia couldn't help but feel the same way as the formation came to a sudden halt at the sight of fires and scorched ground. Several of the guards staggered away, panting and trying desperately to fill their aching lungs with air and one disappeared momentarily around the side of a rock to empty his stomach from the exertion. Others hunched over with their hands pressed into armoured knees or pressing their hands on top of their heads in an attempt to regain control of their breathing.

In the cool afternoon air Kaius stood tall, his chest raising and falling as he too controlled his breathing. It had been a considerable distance to travel in full armour but they had made it in almost less than two thirds of the time it would have taken by marching.

"No signs of any dragon right now," Irileth muttered, gazing across the ruins of the watchtower with her eyes burning red. "but it sure looks like he's been here."

 _That would have been obvious to a blind man_. Sofia thought to herself, seeing the destruction that had been wreaked upon the fortifications. Walls had been tumbled into ruin, flames burned fiercely through the dry grasses and shrubs and only the central tower itself appeared mostly intact. What had once been a solid, tiny little fort of stone and brick was now nothing more than a pile of rubble, ash and dust.

"What do you think?" She said quietly, sliding up close to Kaius' armoured form as he gazed across the scene before them.

"That guard was telling the truth." There was a growl in his voice that she couldn't help but shiver at. She had heard it several times before, and it always heralded a fight. "The damage is too great to have been an attack by Stormcloaks or otherwise, and I don't see any men or mer causing such destruction without the use of a large amount of siege weaponry."

Behind them, Irileth was calling out orders and talking to everyone and no one at the same time, but neither Kaius or Sofia were listening. "So what do we do?"

Gloved and covered with steel, a hand reached out and patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. "Stick close to me, and do what I say."

"You've seen something like this before."

There was a nod and for a moment his eyes met hers. The darkness that dwelled within flashed briefly for a heartbeat before fading away. "Yes."

Her whisper had to be forced from her throat. "Helgen?"

"Yes." The hesitation in his voice and movements was obvious and he turned to look at the south. From the expression on his face he was not looking at the mountains or in the direction of the burned out town but somewhere else entirely. "And another… Many years ago, and far away from here."

Before she could voice the next obvious question Irileth had stepped past them, nudging Kaius with her elbow and gesturing towards the smouldering ruins of the fort. "Spread out and look for survivors." The tone of her voice brooked no insubordination, from guard or mercenary alike. "We need to know what we're dealing with."

Kaius nodded once to Sofia, keeping his hand close to the lengthy bastard sword on his waist and choosing to keep it sheathed compared to the others around them. Rasping metal on leather echoed around them, and the sounds of bowstrings being plucked to test their strength could be heard as the guard detachment moved forward. Almost three dozen of them moved together as a single entity, shifting across the road and through the ruins where great strips of blackened grasses still smouldered.

"How many guards were stationed here?" Kaius called out as he hurdled a small pile of broken masonry that was all that remained of a guard hut.

"A dozen." Irileth replied, the expression on her face telling both him and Sofia all they needed to know. There were bodies scattered about, the rich-pork stink of roasted human flesh catching in the back of everyone's throats the closer they got.

"Shor's bones… Did… Did it kill them all?"

One of the hold guards knelt down over a charred cadaver, seeing the way that the hapless individual had been fused into the position that they had died in. Nothing was left but blackened flesh, the rictus grin where the mouth hung open in a silent scream and the white of bone from its arms extended before it in the useless attempt to stave off its demise. So incredible was the flame that had killed the guard that the metal plates and chainmail had turned molten and run like water, fusing into his flesh and dribbling onto the ground in streams of silver.

The fear was building stronger by the second, and Sofia hovered in Kaius' shadow. There was no doubt in her mind that a legend had returned and burned the watchtower into cinders. Somewhere in the back of her mind though all she could think of was that her supernatural companion offered the best chance of her survival. The walls had been shattered by something of incredible force, and only a tiny portion of the north wall still stood. For several long, gut churning seconds she found herself staring at the interior of the wall, looking at the burnt shapes of men that had been scorched into the masonry. The heat had been so intense that it had cracked mortar to dust, and left a pair of guards as nothing more than shadows permanently frozen in the last moments of their existence.

"Um… Kaius?" She whispered, moving over towards him while staring at the fact that a significant amount of the grey-black ashes that he crushed underfoot were undeniably arranged in a humanoid shape. He ignored her though, appearing at completely at ease but somehow conveying a sense of predatory tension that soured the air.

Above them along the broken strip of wall leading into the central levels of the watchtower, a burned head appeared and arms began waving at them. It was not a wave of relief at seeing three dozen heavily armed soldiers, but one of blind panic as he shouted at them.

The terror in his voice was complete, the shouted warning turning every head and set of eyes in his direction. Those close enough balked at the sight of a hold guard suffering several burns that had consumed most of the hair from his head. "No! Get back! It's still here somewhere!"

Unease ripped through the dozens of spread out guards, and the smell of fear was suddenly and overwhelmingly apparent. "Hroki and Tor just got grabbed when they tried to make a run for it!"

The curse that ripped from Kaius' throat was enough to turn the heads of all within earshot, and they watched with dawning realisation as they saw where he was gazing. There was a wind that plucked at the grasses, swaying and twisting them and fluttering cloaks, capes and surcoats with its breath. Dry and strangely warm despite the touch of autumn on the land, Sofia felt herself break out into a sweat that had nothing to do with temperature.

" _Kynareth save us!_ Here he comes again!"

Wings beat against the air, and a shadow fell over the remains of the fort as those few tiny individuals scattered before it. It was enormous, the largest creature any of them had seen and several of the guards screamed and tried to hide from the creature that came down over the hills and mountains to the south.

Sofia was stuck in place, trying and failing to comprehend the sight. The sword in her hand was forgotten, swept away with the rest of her conscious thoughts as the dragon's presence overwhelmed her. Thirty metres from taloned wingtip to taloned wingtip, and over forty from nose to jagged tail it swept over them with all the strength of a hurricane. The ground seemed to throb with the beat of its wings, the air punching into them with the blasts of wind and within seconds of its appearance utter chaos had been unleashed.

Roaring with untold power, the dragon swept down low over the ruins, the deep bass note torn from its lungs and throat being felt almost more than heard. The strength and threat within something as simple as a sound was enough to trigger all the instinctual parts of the mind, and the guards and Sofia soon found themselves reacting without thought. Rumbling like distant thunder it could be felt through their boots and in the depths of their bellies as it passed overhead, before wheeling on black wings of cold and leather to return.

"Find cover!" Irileth roared over the sound of beating wings, her voice echoing over the sounds of panicked shouts. "Make every arrow count!"

"Gods be damned!" Slamming hard into the wall, Kaius reached out and pulled Sofia behind him as the beast flew overhead again. "This will be the _last_ time I am without a bow!"

The snap-twang of released tension echoed as a handful of the guards managed to release arrows in the direction of the circling beast. It seemed to be merely testing their resolve, watching their every action and gliding through the air currents without the slightest effort. Most of the arrows flicked off into nothing, vanishing from sight to land hundreds of metres away but Sofia could see how the odd one or two seemed to strike home.

" ** _KRIF KRIN. PRUZAH!_** "

The words from the dragon punched into their minds as it circled, and despite the lack of comprehension in the words there was no mistaking the amusement in its tone. It was toying with them, ignoring the handful of arrows loosed at it and deciding when and how to act.

With all the force of an avalanche it suddenly dropped lower, wings curving backwards slightly and roaring with a physical force as it launched itself at the handful of mortals scattered before it. Gouts of flame of such intensity that the heat was felt from fifty metres away washed out over a strip of land twenty metres long, reducing a trio of guards into shrieking embers that flickered and vanished. The inferno stripped flesh from bones, and turned the bones into powder, leaving nothing by a scorched and bubbling path of soil that had been turned to molten rock and glass in its wake.

"We can't fight this thing!" one of the guards shrieked and vanished around the side of the wall where Sofia and Kaius huddled. Irileth was nowhere to be seen and a handful of guards had chosen to flee rather than face their ends. To her horrified eyes she watched as it swung around gracefully in mid-air, flapping its wings and buffeting them with the down draft as it seemed to purposely hunt those trying to escape.

" ** _YOL TOOR SHUL!_** " It roared again, the force of its words spitting from lips of scale and fangs and turning the air into fire. Purposely dragging the last word out it swept the land before it, sending another group of panicking, terrified guards to Aetherius. As the flames died away Sofia watched as one of the few survivors limped away from the edge of the consuming inferno, hair and clothing alight and flesh engulfed in fire. He staggered for a moment or two, his lungs seared from the firestorm and unable to scream as he fell dead on his face.

"Stay here!" Kaius shouted to her as the thing wheeled and flapped away. Its every movement felt stronger than a storm, and she didn't argue. The dark look in his eyes had returned and somehow the way he was smiling was even more horrifying than the great wyrm in the sky above them.

"Irileth!" he ran as fast as he could across open ground, moving away from the wall where Sofia and a handful of guards huddled. A few who had bows were trying their best to hit the dragon as it rolled in the air with all the grace of a falcon despite the fact it had a torso larger than a battering ram.

"Irileth!"

She knelt down, hunching low as it swept over them again with the roaring of elemental fury. Screaming, a guard was ripped from where he stood on the walls, bravely or suicidally firing arrows into the onrushing monstrosity. The shower of blood and gore drizzled into the series of fires scattered in the ruined fort, only seconds before the pulped ruin of a corpse bounced across the rubble.

Eyes wide with fear she twisted as Kaius ducked down beside her, the scarred mercenary giving her some form of confidence in the way that he seemed so in control of his own emotions. Neither of them were armed with anything more than their swords and despite the number of arrows snapping into the creature none seemed to do much more than irritate it at best, or bounce off scales at worst.

"Get whoever you can and get the fuck out of here!" he shouted over the repeated roar of _YOL TOOR SHUL_ that announced the death of several more guards.

"There's no way we can run from this thing!" she spat, wincing as it swooped down and plucked a guard from the ground before he could even scream.

"There is if someone keeps the damn thing distracted!"

Without a further word he had exploded into activity once more, twisting across the ground in the direction of a terribly rent body that had been spread across several metres of ground. The dragon had simply gripped, crushed and released the guard as easily as someone squeezing a grape between their fingers. Even steel armour had meant little to the strength in the dragon's claws, and the chainmail had split and burst even before the body had hit the ground.

Kaius however moved with just as much speed as any mortal, and despite herself Sofia could see that he was holding back. Decades of practice and hiding his true form ensured that even in the midst of a battle against an ancient monstrosity he didn't reveal what he really was. Instead he ducked, ran and slithered across the ground, plucking a bow from where it had fallen from nerveless fingers and retrieving a handful of arrows where they had scattered from a shattered quiver.

" ** _BRIT GRAH!_** "

An arrow was nocked, and Kaius had a trio of other clenched between the fingers of the hand gripping the bow, in place of a quiver. He was moving across the ground now, watching the dragon as it circled around for another pass.

"Over here you scaly bastard!"

The bowstring slapped hard against his wrist and the arrow shot off out of sight. Several of the hold troops were continuing the fight, launching their own arrows at the approaching creature as it swept down upon them. Kaius was in the centre of the ruined fort, holding his ground and launching arrows as quickly as he could draw the bow back to full nock. It was unknown who shots had been successful thus far, but as it flew low across the ground it was obvious that several arrows were stuck in the interlocking scales or leathery wings.

It didn't fly over them, instead the enormous wings opened wide to catch the air and it slammed heavily into the ground, shuddering the soil with the strength of an earthquake. Stones cracked and bricks fell from its weight, collapsing several sections of the broken walls and causing a portion of the tower to crumble and fall away.

Shaking its head, it twisted about, looking at the dozen or more faces wide eyes with terror and clutching tiny implements of war that seemed insignificant to its elemental fury. It was alien, incomprehensible in form and emotion but somehow it seemed to be enjoying the resistance the hold troops were offering.

Arrows plinked off its scales, the shafts shattering or otherwise bouncing away with the bodkins mashed and blunted. Only in the softer portions of the creatures wings, throat and where the wings met its barrelled chest did they seem to strike home. They may as well have been flea bites for all the effect it was having on the creature crawling across the ground.

" ** _I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT FINE SPORT YOU MORTALS CAN PROVIDE!_** " It roared, laughing a deep throbbing growl that vibrated everyone's diaphragms.

Near the wall Sofia was trying to drag away one of the guards who had been wounded by falling masonry and could only watch in horror as it continued its relentless killing. Even without its ability to fly it ripped and tore men into bloodied chunks of metal and meat. A pair of legs sailed through the air as it bit their owner in half, and another hold guard was swept from his feet with a flick of a tail that left him flopping across the ground as though he had suddenly lost all his bones. Those few who were either brave enough or desperate enough attacked the enormous beast with whatever weapons they had, charging forward with swords, axes and maces and dying for the effort.

As it bit down hard on the torso of a screaming soldier, it filled the air with showering blood as it shook him apart like an attack dog savaging a skeever. Only when it crunched down hard on breastplate and bone and dropped the limp body to the ground did it finally realise that it was being hurt.

Kaius, appearing from the smoke, dust and misted gore had somehow managed to duck and slide his way under a flicking tail and slapping wings to ludicrously stab the thing in the chest. Levering his sword between a pair of massive scales he succeeded in drawing blood, coating himself to the elbow in the reptilian fluids that gushed forth.

The effect was immediate; the dragon twisted aside, ignoring the others who were collectively stepping away from its enormous presence as fast as their legs could carry them. The pinprick strikes of arrows were nothing more than an annoyance, but the blood trickling down its side had revealed a threat.

" ** _YOU ARE BRAVE..._** " It rumbled from its chest, turning and regarding the man standing before it with sword stained in blood. " ** _AAN BAHLAAN HOKORON, BUT ONE WHO WILL STILL DIE!_** "

Kaius flicked his sword out to his side, splattering the blood across the ground that had been blasted into broken glass. The blood sizzled and spat, turning into foul steam as it was flicked from the gleaming blade.

" _Usstan xun naut treemma dos cer'z_." The strange melodic words carrying over the sudden stillness of the battle. Despite the way that the survivors were moving away as quickly as they could they could not tear their eyes from the sight of a single man facing down the dragon. " _Usstan inbal elggus dosst valyrin p'los!"_

The guards and Sofia might not have understood the words that the scarred mercenary spoke, but the dragon seemed to. Deep and foreboding, the growl that trembled its flanks as it slowly prowled around him was terrifying in its intensity.

" ** _FIN TINVAAK DO FIN MINGOLT?_** " The laugh of the dragon seemed more terrifying than its roars. " ** _ISN'T THAT A SURPRISE…_** "

Everyone bearing witness watching sickeningly at what they all knew was coming. Rising above him, the dragon lifted its head to look down upon the man that dared to stand before it. The words coiled through its flesh, pushing from the depths of its chest and between its dagger-like teeth.

" ** _YOL TOOR SHUL!_** "

The flames bursting forth in front of the creature's mouth rippled and forced all of those watching to shield their eyes from it. It gave mild burns to those within fifteen metres, claiming eyebrows and hair of those within ten. Sofia felt the heat through the leather covering her arms as it was raised to almost scaling temperatures before the dragon's fiery breath dwindled away.

Standing in the midst of the inferno, forced to one knee and sweating profusely from the strain, Kaius looked upwards into the bemused expression of the monster standing before him. His sword had been stuck into the ground at his feet, a crackling halo of bluish energies wafting into the air around him as the ward he had cast finally cracked. It had cost him though; a tiny trickle of blood dribbled from a nostril and down over a lip that was curled in a grim smile.

" _Oloth plynn dos!_ " He roared again in the same sing-song language he had spoken before, twisting his arms and twirling his hands about as though he was performing some intricate dance. A finger pointed accusingly at the enormous creature, and with a blast of magicka that left everyone's teeth on edge he directed a bolt of energy that struck it in the snout. For the second time in two days Sofia was left dumbstruck at the skill and control over magicka her companion had. He was not as powerful as some of the Wizards from the college but there was a preciseness that was almost impossible to behold. Pointed fangs that dripped with gore were suddenly shattered and plucked from gums, several arcing through the air as fragments from the magical impact.

The fact that it had been wounded, not once, but twice seemed to confuse it for a moment which Kaius wasted no time in exploiting. Wrenching his sword from where he had stuck it in dirt and glass shards he moved towards it, a hand outstretched, fingers splayed and calling forth another crackling ward. Flames licked and flowed over the circular edge of the magical shield as the dragon breathed its words hurriedly, spitting rather than roaring at the charging mortal. He was too close now for another sustained blast of dragonfire, moving quickly and sliding closer where he could reach the scaled hide with the edge of his blade.

Even without its breath and words the creature was enormously powerful. A head as solid as the mountains slammed down like a whip, impacting with rock shattering force and filling the air with powdered stone and rock shards. It dragged its long neck across the ground, hurling a fountain of pulverised dirt and crushed masonry into the sky and somehow missing the darting figure that hacked and stabbed into whatever he could.

The survivors watched the struggle, some still containing the state of mind to drag the wounded away as the dragon rocked the ground with strikes containing titanic force. Everyone else was forgotten by the beast, its focus solely on the tiny figure that seemed to slide around its stamping feet, beating wings and snapping maw. Large enough to eviscerate a horse in a single bite and strong enough to crush steel, it somehow found itself bleeding from several rents in its hide where the caress of a sword had sliced between scales. Kaius was somehow not only surviving, but managing to hold his own against a creature that had effortlessly killed dozens of soldiers in minutes.

Dragonfire beat against the crackling protection of hurriedly cast wards, claws swiped at a body that refused to stand still long enough to be touched. Teeth, curved and terrible snapped together on nothing but air and the owner receiving several more gashes across mouth, lips and throat as the silvery edge of a bastard sword flashed.

The soldier Sofia was dragging by the armpits whimpered as the force of a blow ripped through the ground. "Ysmir's grace… How can he stand against such a thing?"

She had no words to give, watching and feeling the raw might of the creature as it slammed into the side of a wall and sent shattered bricks and ancient stones hurtling through the air like hail. Kaius for his part simply rolled from the destruction, moving quickly across the open ground as the dragon clambered over the ruins of the eastern walls. Its claws rent gouges through the stonework that were wide enough to sew crops in, hewing the rock and mortar as though it was wet clay. The anger that throbbed from the beast was a burning sensation on the skin not alike the burns they all had suffered by now.

A terror that she never believed possible gnawed away at her mind and she struggled not to simply turn and flee in whatever direction was the opposite to the dragon. Some of the guards had vanished into the rolling hills and gullies, but several more stood firm, watching in amazement as a lone individual fought a legend.

The terror was not entirely from the dragon and its seemingly unstoppable presence. While horrendous and triggering all the parts of her mind from before men had risen from their primal states it was her vampiric companion that was more concerning. Drowned out by the creature he fought, no one could hear his battle cries or the incantations that spilled from his mouth. For the soldiers of Whiterun all they could see was a face twisted into a mask of determination, a snarl on a face gripped tight with fury.

Sofia could see more. It was not anger or righteous hatred that drove him onwards, jamming his blade into throat and chest and hacking at every weakness he could find. It was not a snarl, or a mask of someone expecting his death.

It was a smile.

Despite everything and possibly because of the situation he was in, he was smiling, hacking out a dry laugh that served as a battlecry. The others saw none of it but the past month that she had fought by his side Sofia knew that Kaius was enjoying himself. Against a creature born from the very depths of antiquity, against a monster with the strength to slaughter villages and decimate armies on a whim he was thriving on the challenge. For 200 hundred years of his long life, one that she had only seen the merest hints of he had seen and fought beings and creatures more myth than reality. Against a dragon, he had found himself a challenge; a challenge that he was loving every second of.

The creature was hurting, bleeding from several terrible rents in its natural armour as Kaius had a natural affinity of stabbing or cutting in precisely the right way to draw blood or wound. Its lifeforce was gushing from several deep cuts in its long scaled neck and in the softer portions of its face, the wounds deep and painful as it began thrashing about in more than just anger. It was becoming more and more bestial, raging at the fact that no matter how hard or powerful it struck, clawed, bit or swiped that the tiny human simply evaded its blows.

Kaius was covered with gore that steamed and boiled off him every time the dragon spoke the words that transformed air into fire. The flames didn't touch his flesh through the wards that he threw around himself and while it was obvious he was tiring the dragon too was beginning to slow. His exhaustion may have been physical from the fight and mental from the use of his magicka, but the dragon was in pain and losing blood.

The point of the sword lashed out, spearing deep into a bone encrusted socket and punching through the yellow orb in a spray of draconic ichor. Kaius had put his full weight into the blow and had timed the thrust perfectly to match the creature as it swung its head at him. The force of the blade meeting the onrushing head of the dragon jammed the blade to the hilt in its eye, stopping it in its tracks as it twisted and roared in agony. The scream of pain from the dragon was enough to cause several of the nearest guards to cover their ears in an attempt to block the sound. More than one was left whimpering as blood leaked between their fingers and Kaius staggered backwards as though punched.

His grip on his sword remained as strong as the metal of its forging, twisting and ripping it clear of skull, flesh and bone and roaring as he spun around, gripping it tightly and swinging with all of his strength. Like a woodsman felling a tree, he used the blade as an axe, chopping it into the dragon's throat where the armoured skull met the neck. Cutting deep between scales, the pained roars of the half blinded creature were cut off in mid breath, all strength suddenly flooding from its limbs as it slumped to the ground with a severed spine.

Every single person who had borne witness to the incredible feat were hushed as the dragon lay dying, its breath rattling out of its enormous chest and blood puffing into the air through a set of jaws lolling on the ground. Death was coming for it, not only through the terrible damage that a simple steel sword had inflicted on it, but the panting and gasping man who tore the blade free. His armoured boots crunched into the scorched soil and gravel, stepping over the outstretched wing that twitched feebly and twirling the lengthy sword in the palm of his hand. Gripping the hilt tightly with a pair of gloved and armoured hands, he stepped in close, roaring with the effort and punching it deep through scale, skull and brain.

With one last twitch and a flood of gore from the roof of its mouth, the great serpent died with seventy centimetres of Nordic steel skewering its brain.

The silence was somehow even more deafening than the battle. Despite how it had raged so fiercely and the numbers of men who had died it had only lasted a few minutes, ten at most. Broken only by the crackling of dried grass and shrubs and the moaning of those suffering wounds the silence seemed to drag on for eternity. Without consciously realising, several of the hold troops let out sudden cheers and whooping cries of victory.

Kaius was unperturbed, either ignoring the cheers and shouts or deafened from the battle and the dragon's roars. Everyone was amazed to be alive, let alone having borne witness to a single man slaying a dragon. More than one bashed their shields in salute to the warrior who put an armoured boot into scaled flesh and heaved on the hilt of his blade. The smile he wore was visible to all, but only Sofia could see that he was pleased with successfully killing such a challenging foe rather than the merely surviving against it.

The great pools of blood that was soaking into the broken and burnt soil was ankle deep in places, steaming gently in the heat of the afternoon sun and the effects of its fire breath. No one noticed when it began steaming even more, the red tinged moisture evaporating and rising into the air rather than slowly congealing and soaking into the soil. It began softly, imperceptibly, and completely unnoticed to the handful of soldiers who were making their way towards the corpse and its slayer. Even to the gore streaked warrior turning his back on the giant corpse and trying to clean his blade he didn't notice the way the blood was fading away until the soft swirls of light began rising up with it.

Flames began dribbling out of the bloodied rents in its gnarled hide, trickling like liquid gold that danced and sparkled and lifting up on the air before it could reach the ground. From nostrils, gullet and the ruined eye the building inferno consumed the body from within, rippling through flesh and meat and stopping everyone in their tracks.

"Look at that…" One of the guards exclaimed, pointing at the corpse as its flesh began melting. In a burning river of muscle, meat and blood it streamed out of the rents in the skin, boiling away into light

" _Dragonborn…"_ Another added, his voice filled with awe.

Kaius stood in the centre of a swirling vortex of light, the coiling multi-coloured tendrils coursing across the ground and wrapping around his legs. Like the creepers and vines that dwelled in the depths of Falkreath hold, the light ensnared him, gripping him tight and growing up and around his limbs as though it was a living thing. For several seconds he stood there, watching in amazement as even the blood that stained his armour and clothing evaporated, dissipating into the storm of ethereal energies that roiled and churned.

More and more flesh and blood churned into light, surrounding him in a crackling halo of power that spoke of an age long since passed. Almost invisible in the eye of the storm, leaning into it like struggling through a northern blizzard Kaius grimly held on while looking shocked and astonished at what was happening. But, as Sofia watched in her own disbelief the energies changed, constricting inwards like a serpent and Kaius' expression turned from confusion to horror.

He began screaming, full throated and face clenched as the shimmering light began compressing into the centre of his being. This was no battle cry or demented laugh of someone facing a challenge, but one of pure nerve-frying agony. The sound was more horrifying, more visceral than those men who had died before at the teeth and fangs of the dragon and there was nothing they could do but watch as he screamed continuously in a storm of power.

In the light flowing from the dissolving remains of the dragon Sofia soon found herself seeing thing in the glow. The hint of a roaring mouth and unfurled wings spread out across the land and she blinked, trying to clear her eyes of the impossible sight. On beams of an inferno the dragon-shape rose from the corpse, writhing in shared agony with the screaming man as it merged into him. Another dragon twisted out of the central vortex, the two long necks of iron-clad scales winding around each other even as they merged into one. Impossible sights flashed before her eyes, each blink seemingly wiping away the half-formed images and replacing them with another just as impossible.

There were dozens upon dozens of individuals; men and women alike that flickered and writhed and changing so quickly that trying to see individual features was like trying to hold back a river with her hands. An enormous being of bone spurs and forward curving horns roared from a maw of needles, howling outrage into the world. Both the two-metre-tall humanoid and the hundreds of flickering shapes were framed in a halo of light and superimposed themselves over Kaius' shrieking form.

For a heart stopping instant she saw the enormity of a creature born of the darkest of her nightmares, great spindly legs as long as mountain pines unfurling from an abdomen as twisted and horrific as the spider they slew in the barrow. The spider-light reared for an instant, the head and maw impossibly replaced with the sinuous and alluring shape of a beautiful woman before everything vanished.

As quickly as it had begun the light faded, leaving those few witnessed blinking away the glowing lights that danced in their eyes as though they had looked at the sun. Judging by the reactions of the soldiers around her, and their expressions of awestruck reverence they had not seen the same sights as she had. the building pressure in the back of her mind heralded an oncoming migraine that no amount of alcohol could dampen and no hangover could match. It had been months, if not a year or more since she had suffered such a headache and it was one of the primary reasons why she had left the College of Winterhold. Staring into oblivion and close proximity to magicka had left her witness to things that she had long sought to wipe from her mind.

Kaius' tortured expression and the rolling eyes could be counted among them, especially by the way that he stood there with fresh blood dribbling down his lips and chin. It splattered a breastplate now noticeably lacking in draconic gore, bubbling from between his lips by the power of the seizure and the way he had bitten through his tongue.

"The sky!" Shouted one of the men nearby, gesturing to the spire of stone and snow that towered over all of Skyrim. " _Look at the sky!_ "

Drawn by his exclamation and the pointed arm, they watched with confusion at the way how the clouds around High Hrothgar were being swept away. In a rapidly expanding circle like ripples in a pond, the clouds were being blasted into nothingness, pushed out of the way with an otherworldly force.

The slopes of the mountain heaved, avalanches sliding down the jagged knife wounds of cragged valleys where no tree or shrub could hope to cling to existence. The swirling white streams flowed like a liquid, reminding Sofia of the half frozen waves breaking against the rocks and cliffs under the college. The sheer height of the mountain and the slopes meant that by the times the thunderous walls of ice and snow reached its base it slowed to nothingness through uninhabited canyons. Despite that, there appeared that there would be no travel through the Valtheim pass until the next summer at least. Going by the clouds of powered snow rising into the air, one of the landslides had reached the river to the east of Whiterun.

The wave of power rippled across the land, shifting through soil and air and being felt through the ground even before it reached them. On the lower slopes of High Hrothgar forests of pines creaked and cracked under the strain, their needles filling the air and being carried along by the tempest. When it finally reached the handful of survivors it flowed through the sea of grasses like a tsunami, whipping the smell of ash and death into their faces.

 ** _"_** ** _DO-VAH-KIIN!"_**

The thunder rumbled off into the distance like a fading summer storm, leaving only the distant echoes of the mountain shaking itself awake. Billowing up around its base and the rising foothills, the last vestiges of the avalanches finished their plunge into oblivion and silence, true silence fell across the land.

No one spoke, all eyes turning and looking at the trembling, twitching figure standing before the dead dragon.

Sofia looked between Kaius, the mountain and the corpse of the great lizard, its bones poking outwards and holding up its skin like a poorly constructed tent.

Kaius twitched, his head turning slightly to gaze upon the majestic heights of the mountain. Frothy pick bubbles and thick streams of drool and blood ran down his chin like the snow that had wrought ruin on the mountainside. With his eyes struggling to focus on the source of the crashing sound his mind finally gave up the struggle to remain conscious, and pitched forward onto his face.

* * *

Translations:

KRIF KRIN. PRUZAH! - Fight courageously. Good!

YOL TOOR SHUL - Fire inferno sun

BRIT GRAH! - Beautiful battle!

AAN BAHLAAN HOKORON - A worthy enemy

Usstan xun naut treemma dos cer'z - I do not fear you wyrm (Drow)

Usstan inbal elggus dosst valyrin p'los! - I have slain your kind before! (Drow)

FIN TINVAAK DO FIN MINGOLT - The language of the underground (Mingolt is my own bastardised Dovahzul. Why don't the dragons have words for 'deep', 'under', 'below', or even 'black' and 'reach'?)

Oloth plynn dos! - Darkness take you! (Drow)

All my Drow translations I gain from the Chosen of Eilistraee website. ( )


End file.
